LONDON (Reuters) – Deep-pocketed investors pumped a record $4.2 billion into big technology stocks last week, BofA’s flow data showed on Friday, taking advantage of the slight pullback on Wall Street while retail traders were busy buying stocks such as GameStop.
An army of retail investors went toe-to-toe with Wall Street professionals last month by buying into stocks that were heavily shorted by hedge funds. In the tussle, some funds had to sell out of their long positions to cover the losses, causing wider falls in stock prices.
“Big client zeitgeist in past 2 weeks has unambigously been to buy the FAANMG (Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, Microsoft and Google-owner Alphabet) underperformance,” said Michael Hartnett, BofA’s chief investment strategist.
The retail trading fever also sent silver surging past $30 an ounce for the first time since 2013 before prices fell back. The precious metal attracted a record $2.8 billion in the week to Wednesday, BofA said.
(Reporting by Thyagaraju Adinarayan; Editing by Tommy Wilkes)
